Banging Denmark by Van Badham | PIP Theatre
Image credit: PIFProductions
It is International Women’s Day when my plus one and I enter PIP Theatre to see Banging Denmark. I am surprised by the venue, a hidden gem of a theatre with a delightful ambient foyer and convenient location in Milton. I am shocked given the day when the performance opens on a man going on a tirade about how to manipulate women, about the lesser status of women, about the “base urge” to submit sexually to men all women experience despite their more modern traditions of leaving their men metaphorically castrated. Somewhat embarrassingly, the feminist I was at 17 would have immediately written Banging Denmark off as misogynist trash – luckily the feminist I am now at 24 understands that in order to critique something you must portray it and portray it at its worst.
Image credit: Kris Anderson.
Banging Denmark is a feminist comedy, an enemies-to-friends, a friends-to-lovers, and a strangers-to-one-night-stands story all in one. Jake is an “alpha” male podcaster and dating coach who sells seduction techniques to the lovelorn men of the internet. Ishtar Madigan is a feminist academic who has been driven into hiding after having her life destroyed by male internet trolls. Jake thinks he has it made as a modern Casanova-type until he finds his usual moves don’t work on Anne, a stunningly icy Danish librarian. He seeks Ishtar out and offers her $50,000 to help him land a date with the titular Dane; messy, sexy, real, interactive comedy ensues from there. I mentioned that this is a feminist comedy and I hear you ask, “How feminist is it, Triss?” Well, I’ll tell you, this play is so wild and so fun and it is pretty bloody feminist. It was like watching Andrew Tate ask Clementine Ford for dating tips; an opportunity she then uses to find and heal the wound that caused his animosity towards women. An intellectual tennis match full of priceless one-liners and more snogging than you’d expect from something that on paper seems like a fairly serious piece of writing Banging Denmark gives an intelligent, nuanced, and insightful look into the wonders and woes of modern dating. If you love 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love you will be obsessed this.
Image credit: Kris Anderson.
The cast handles the rigour and the romp of Badham’s text with gravitas and a great willingness to interact with the audience that surrounds them – which was great for me given anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a notoriously active audience member. The entire cast does wonderful work, but my personal stand outs were Rijen Laine as Jake and Janaki Gerard as Denyse. Laine gives a harrowingly accurate portrayal of the kind of “high value men” that lead me and other young women to exclaim men ought to be banned from having podcasts altogether. He oozes the kind of entitled chauvinism one expects from a man of his ilk despite reports from mutual friends who were in the audience with me that Laine himself is an absolute sweetheart – talk about range! Gerard is truly effervescent in her performance. I have met, consoled, advised, and been the young woman she portrays. And the relatability of this character is thanks to Gerard’s ability to keep herself and Denyse emotionally grounded in amongst all the quips and physical comedy.
PIP Theatre’s Banging Denmark advertises itself as a fun night of solid entertainment and it delivers on this in spades. It’s real, raunchy, and wriggles its feminism in underneath the laughs in a way that keeps it squarely in the land of entertainment rather than delivering a gender studies lecture. So grab a friend, grab a ticket, grab a drink and support indie theatre doing what it does best.
